Service improvement is new direction for insurance sector

Service improvement will be a focus for the development of the country's insurance sector in upcoming years, industry experts said at a recent forum.

"Chinese insurance companies don't suffer from a lack of quality products but are short of quality services," said Jiang Ming, president of Datong Insurance Sales & Services Company Ltd.

"Therefore, the industry should make more efforts in improving relevant services."

Datong, for instance, just upgraded its products by expanding its service scope and quality by including health care and medical evacuation. Relying on Kray Beijing, an emergency rescue platform under Datong operating 24 hours a day, Datong established a network system around the world to provide services in various fields for customers, such as global travel assistance and medical assessment. The newly added service "Tong Yicha" covers nearly 300 items of information from different insurance companies. Based on Datong's insurance service, it helps customers quickly inquire about possible rights and interests according to their insurance policy information.

As an important part of China's insurance industry, the market share of insurance intermediaries has been increasing under the environment of separation between production and marketing. Because of fierce price competition, the development of service becomes a new direction.

As far as consumers are concerned, an insurance product should not only be a sales process, but truly cover the whole extent of customers' demand with quality services. Insurance intermediaries need to break down the barriers between different companies and demand in services, which serves as the main focus of intermediaries' efforts.

Xu Xian, head of the Department of Insurance and Risk Management at Fudan University, said service is very important to both insurance customers and companies. The basis of insurance companies is to keep customers. Only by ensuring customers' rights and interests and maintaining the relationship can companies achieve sustainable development. The key to all this lies in providing quality service to customers.

Wang Hao contributed to this story